Legal Research

Lewisham Council - Libraries axe deferred

By scott

My local Council held a meeting on Monday night to agree Revenue Budget Savings Proposals of £16.395 million for 2011-14, which includes £11.823m of proposals for 2011/12. Some braved the weather to demonstrate (and if you believe the press ‘riot’)

What was interesting from a librarian point of view is that the proposal to close 5 Libraries - to save a whole £830k - was deferred “to allow further consideration to be given to proposals to draw up alternative community provision.”

Good news for the libraries, although this does sound more like a delay to them being closed rather than a reprieve.

Also being dropped (for now) from the cuts were:

CUS 4, £150k ? Business Regulatory Services deferred to Phase 2 to allow a full assessment of the changes to the Housing Benefits system.
CUS 22, £90k ? Refuse Collection Service deferred to Phase 2 to allow a borough-wide assessment of the impact of revised fees and charges.
CUS 44, £89k ? Environmental Protection deferred to Phase 2 to verify legal implications of proposed changes.
RES 17, £50k ? The £15k member development saving accepted. £50k Overview and Scrutiny saving withdrawn in accordance with the request of the Public Accounts Select Committee.
CYP 15, £2.180m ? consultation on the Amersham Early Years Centre should commence and the saving be deferred to February 2011.

Full post as published by Information Overload on December 02, 2010 (boomark / email).